np dude. I'll offer you a couple of options and different prices. I would say the two key things to look for with routers these days is the brand and the wifi. There are some routers (e.g. the shub) that are just poorly made with cheap parts and poor designed software. It makes them very unstable, missing some features which you would think are common sense and generally they annoy you. Routers are like the electricity coming into your house, you aren't going to sit there and play with it, you just want the peace of mind that you know it is there and it is going to work. I understand your reluctance to spend a lot of money but the thing I always say to people is think about the cost of a router in proportion to your dependence on it. Some people might live by themselves and "turn on the pc" once or twice a week to check the emails and that is it. Others, like myself, need something completely dependable because it is in use 24/7. I game a lot, somebody is always on youtube or browsing, I do some beefy downloads during the night, we have got networked printers, tvs, sky, nas' etc and we couldn't use any of it without a solid router.
Bearing that in mind take a look at these:
Linksys EA2700 @ £45
Linksys EA6700 @ £80
Asus AC68u @ £130
You can stand proud if you own any of those routers. Linksys are a fantastic brand and I have had Linksys routers from day 1 for the last 15 or so years now. I have 8 different models and each one has worked perfectly and I have never had any problems. You will always see people complaining that their router has frozen and they have had to pull the power cable out the back and reboot it. I have never had to do that with my Linksys routers, they all sit there for months on end humming away quite happily and handle everything I throw at them. The only reason why some of them have been replaced over time is to keep up with technology. Although you will see pretty much every router you look at has gigabit ports, that doesn't mean you can download at that speed (even if your isp provisioned you for it). A lot of stuff goes into sending information back and forth across the internet and routers have what is called a "wan to lan throughput" which is basically how fast you can actually download stuff off the internet. As an example, I might have a 152mbit connection with VM and the want to lan throughput for my router might be 688mbits. In this scenario I know my router can more than handle my internet connection speed. The worst case scenario though (and this is true) is that you could buy some routers a couple of years ago which had "gigabit ports" but the wan to lan throughput was 98mbits. I can remember people posting on this forum saying VM had just upgraded them to 120mbits and they couldn't get above 100. Once we looked at the router we knew why. You don't need to worry about it though, things have taken off big time and any router you buy now will last you quite a few years. The wan to lan throughputs for the three routers I posted above are 341mbits, 942mbits, and 755mbits respectively.
The second and probably more important thing for you to look at is the wireless. A lot of people get confused about wireless performance and what to expect and it is important to remember that it is a two way relationship. You might buy a brand spanking new top of the range laptop and phone with ac wireless, but if you router can only handle n speeds then that is all you are going to get. The second and third routers I have linked to are both ac routers which is the latest wireless specification. You will probably only have n devices at the moment (laptops/printers/phones/tablets) but bearing in mind that you don't want to be buying a new router every two years, the thing you need to think about is what type of devices you use, how much you use them and are you likely to get new stuff. If you are tech savvy or have tech savvy children, you probably get new phones and games consoles every year and you will want an ac router so you can fully benefit from the new features your devices have to offer. Another thing to consider is that both Linksys routers have internal antennae which will suit you down to a t given your comments.
I know I haven't spoken about the Asus yet. I have never personally owned one but there are other IT gurus on this forum who have various Asus models and they are just as passionate about them as I am my Linksys routers. Both brands offer rock solid performance and very importantly, stability. The other thing I'll quickly mention is wireless range. Some routers (the shub again) can flout about wireless speed and being super duper, but the range sucks ass and as soon as you walk out the room your connection dies because it won't go through a wall or the floor. The other reason why Linksys and Asus are so good is because they have very good wireless range and I can get a great signal anywhere in my house and outside in the garden.
Taking all those things into consideration, brand quality, performance, stability, wireless speed and range, wan to lan throughput, the longevity and potential lifespan of the router (future proofing), I think the best one for you to go for is the second one I recommended, which is the Linksys ea6700. You might think £80 is a bit steep but it is a cracking router. The wan to lan throughput is massive and will surpass anything VM give you for many years to come. It is ac wireless so you know as far as technology goes that it is going to last you a few years and coupled with all that is a solid reliable router which isn't going to let you down. You can go for the first option and still be happy but the two things that would bother me is the wan to lan throughput and the wireless. VM are going to be banging speeds up to 300mbits soon and you would be pushing it on that router. The second thing is that if you do like keeping up with new phones are stuff then you would also be shooting yourself in the foot as far as the wireless speed goes.
Either option is good but I think the second one has so much more to offer for that little bit extra. Like said, think about how much it will get used and how much of your life will revolve around it (sad I know
). In the grand scheme of things the extra £30 for the next four years of use is peanuts.
Let us know if you do get a new one and what you choose. Having your own router is always better than an isp supplied one and there are some settings you can change which are a god send which you also can't do on isp supplied routers (which can literally lead to your connection dying).
Good luck.